[TN-Bird] Re: Henry County: Mississippi Kite over our yard
- From: knoxmartin2@xxxxxxx
- To: bb551@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:11:25 -0400 (EDT)
No, as I said in an earlier email, 2000 was the final year that kites were
released in Henry County.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Pulliam <bb551@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: tn-bird@freelists org <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: knoxmartin2 <knoxmartin2@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Fri, Jun 14, 2013 10:47 am
Subject: Re: [TN-Bird] Re: Henry County: Mississippi Kite over our yard
Thanks for this information, it is very helpful. Your website mentions some
birds released as recently as 2008:
http://www.midsouthraptorcenter.com/pdf/kite.pdf
These were not Henry County releases? They were the ones I was most concerned
about being potential sources for recent sightings. Of course they would have
migrated intercontinentally 5 times since then.
Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN
On Jun 14, 2013, at 10:25 AM, knoxmartin2@xxxxxxx wrote:
While the Mississippi Kite reintroduction program started in the mid-1980's and
continued for almost 25 years, the birds were released at Paris Landing State
Park in the years 1990-1996, 1998, and finally in 2000. I seriously doubt that
any of the original birds are still alive as the first groups would be from 17
to 23 years old, and the last group would be 13. All the birds were first year
hatches. The studies I have found have a variety of ages, but considering the
two migrations each year plus any number of other problems I doubt any of these
original released kites are still living. I would hope that some of the recent
sightings are their offspring, but that is only a guess (or hope!). With global
warming a factor it would seem probable that the western range of the kite is
expanding east, and the Mississippi River breeding areas could also be
expanding north along the river and tributaries in west Tennessee. Over 350
kites were banded and released during the 25 years of the program as well as
almost 50 local kites that were either raised from chicks or rehabbed at the
Memphis Zoo, and after 2002 at the Mid-South Raptor Center in Memphis.To date
only a single band has been recovered and that band was actually found by a
gentleman in West Memphis, AR, who was raking leaves and found the unattached
band.
Knox Martin
Mid-South Raptor Center
Memphis, Shelby County
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